


What We Do in the Shadows

by Kahika



Series: Sanguine [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Blood Drinking, F/M, M/M, Mass Effect Kink Meme, Multi, Mutual Masturbation, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 20:41:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4494003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kahika/pseuds/Kahika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaidan wants to get rid of his migraine. Garrus wants to drink his blood. Ashley doesn't think she can have what she wants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What We Do in the Shadows

A migraine from overdoing the biotics is not the most illustrious way to end the first assignment Shepard's letting him run on his own. Kaidan shuts his eyes and massages his temples, lying on the floor as Garrus and Ashley both poke at their omni-tools. Garrus is trying to get into a terminal that he just failed to hack because his migraine distracted him. Ashley's messaging the _Normandy_ for extraction.

"Two hours," she says, her omni-tool fading, and Kaidan groans, because that's two hours until he can have the really good painkillers that Chakwas won't let him take into the field. Ashley's omni-tool flares back to life, and he whines in protest before he can stop himself. "Hang on, LT, I've got this."

What exactly she's got, he's not sure.

"Ooh," says Garrus. "Geth data. Tali's going to like this way more than that sad song."

"Way to go, Team Vampire Fantasy," Kaidan says half-heartedly.

"Oh, no, we _have_ to come up with a better squad name than that," Garrus says, and his footsteps come towards him and Ashley. "What exactly are you trying to do, Ash?"

"Get the lights."

They've idly been trying to teach her to hack, with a thousand credits riding on who can get her good enough for a field certification. It's not going well, so why she's trying to hack the lights...

"There are these things called light switches," says Garrus, unknowingly voicing Kaidan's thoughts.

"I've _got_ this," she insists.

Garrus sighs, and murmurs to her for a minute, and then the lights fade to a level that doesn't hurt his head as much.

"There," says Ashley, sounding very proud of herself, and justifiably so. "Mood lighting."

Kaidan opens his eyes, but doesn't move from the floor. " _Thank you_ ," he says. "I probably could have done that myself; geth don't usually secure life support functions as much as their servers -"

"You're having a bad day," she says, shrugging. "It's okay. We know you'd usually do it in half the time."

"Besides, there are other things you're good at," says Garrus.

He glances over at him. They're both sitting beside him, looking sympathetically down at him. "Such as?" He wouldn't normally fish for compliments like this, but he's feeling dumb for giving himself a migraine when he could have just hacked the geth that had attacked them.

"Teaching," Ashley says easily, which is a bit odd considering the last time he tried to teach her coding, it ended in her ripping off her omni-tool and throwing it at him.

"Very good at inspiring interspecies cooperation," Garrus says, not even a mandible twitching with amusement.

"Good at necking," adds Ashley.

"Is he?" Garrus says, sounding unimpressed.

"If it came up in a review cycle, I'd write him good feedback," she says. "His _mouth_ , Garrus."

Kaidan eyes them both suspiciously. "You said _mood_ lighting."

"It's this turian concept I've been telling Ash about," Garrus deadpans, and Ashley bursts out laughing. "You adjust the lights when you're trying to create a certain mood."

"Cut the crap, Garrus," says Kaidan, the migraine shredding his patience. "What mood?"

Garrus very deliberately places a hand on his thigh and licks his fangs.

"Ah," says Kaidan.

"Yup," says Ashley helpfully.

Kaidan swallows. "Greico's got the rations sorted out now. I _saw_ how much you had to eat at lunch."

"Kaidan," Garrus says, pointed. "It's not a _snack_ that I want here."

Huh. Unexpected, but _interesting_. Except for the way he'd laced their fingers together on Ashley's waist and the way he'd reached around her to touch him in their cuddle puddle last time, Garrus has never struck him as being particularly interested in men, or at least not human men. Then again, it's not like he knows the tells in turian body language.

"When you dared me to do it last time, I was sore from that fight with those krogans in the morning," says Ashley, apparently thinking he needs more convincing. Her voice starts to take on that dreamy quality normally reserved for Tennyson. "You know what that venom feels like? Like you're safe. Like everything's fine. Like you're never going to hurt again."

"I think you had too much," says Garrus, alarmed.

Still. It sounds like just what he needs. Kaidan puts his hand over Garrus'. "Do it."

Garrus leans over him and trails his mandibles over his armor. He can't feel it, but the intimacy's enough to make him want more. "Where do you want me?" Garrus asks, his voice low. _Everywhere,_ Kaidan thinks despite himself. "Median cubital? Ulnar? Femoral?" He pauses by his jaw, his breath hot on Kaidan's neck. "Jugular?"

"Oh, god," murmurs Ashley.

The truth is, Kaidan had vampire fantasies too, but unlike Ashley wanting to be ravished, he's imagined himself as both the vampire and the victim. He's already gotten to play the vampire, so letting Garrus take him by the neck is extremely tempting, especially with this migraine.

He turns his head, brushing his jaw against Garrus' facial plates. "Femoral," he breathes.

"Really thought you were going to say jugular for a second there," says Garrus, pulling away.

"If you knew how much this migraine hurts, you'd know why a high risk of death was actually an option," Kaidan says. "But I don't think I want to tell Shepard a husk got me. We'd _all_ look bad. A leg wound is more believable."

Ashley runs her fingers over his forehead, frowning, and turns to Garrus. "When you and your lady friend did this, where did you bite?" she asks, and then reconsiders. "Or get bitten?"

"We did a warmup on the waist," says Garrus. Kaidan doesn't miss how he doesn't clarify whether he bit or was bitten. "Not much plating, but no major arteries either, so it was _slow_. Then we did jugular."

"I can see why you'd have fewer options with another turian," says Kaidan.

"Mm," says Garrus. "You're right handed, aren't you?"

"Yeah," he says. "Ash, grab my medkit."

He sits up and taps at his omni-tool as she fetches the medkit from a couple of metres away, then unstraps his omni-tool and hands it to her.

"I've set up my biofeedback for automatic alerts if my vitals drop too low and for once my blood level drops to about a pint lost," he says, and Ashley nods and straps it next to her own.

" _Wow_ ," says Garrus, shaking his head. "I'm really feeling the trust here."

"You're not the one I'm worried about getting carried away," Kaidan says evenly, and Garrus blinks, and then chuckles.

"You really wanted this," he says, and it's not a question but Kaidan nods anyway. He glances to Ashley. "Told you so, Ash."

Kaidan narrows his eyes as Ashley busies herself digging into his kit. "Told her _what_?"

"That you didn't need baiting into this," Garrus explains. "It was your idea; I figured you'd want to get in on the action."

Yes, he'd been curious about it since hearing about it on that joint forces op, _but_. "I wasn't really thinking about it as 'action' until you brought up your recon scout friend and _you_ brought up being ravished," he protests.

"Yeah, right," says Ashley, coming up with a disinfectant wipe. "One of these?"

Kaidan nods, and starts unclipping the armor on his legs. "Seriously, I just wanted you two to get along."

"And to impress Shepard," she says.

He pauses, and without meaning to, he smiles. "It worked."

"I can't believe you're using my biology to get women," Garrus says, mock-affronted.

" _This_ right now isn't getting me women," Kaidan points out, unlacing his boots. Ever since he gave her those hickeys, Ashley has been awkwardly feigning disinterest in him. For her sake, he's not calling her out on it.

She smirks. "I could call Shepard when it starts getting good," she says. "Let her listen to you moaning."

"Who says I'm going to moan?"

"I do," says Garrus, and Kaidan's willing to bet the growl in his subvocal's entirely deliberate, because it's going straight to his dick.

He removes the trousers of his compression suit, leaving himself half-naked from the waist down, which is just odd when he usually gets ready from the legs upwards. Ashley glances down and raises an eyebrow.

"You've been with me getting into gear," says Kaidan. "This shouldn't be new."

"I'm always getting into my own gear, not checking you out," she says, rolling her eyes. She pauses, then frowns. "Wait, does this mean you've been checking _me_ out while suiting up?"

"I have," announces Garrus, and Kaidan lets out a laugh. Of course Garrus, who wears his armor around the ship most of the time, would have more time on his hands while his human squadmates get ready. "Human anatomy is very confusing."

Kaidan grins at Ashley's slightly offended but also _speechless_ look as he holds out a hand for the disinfectant wipe. He wipes down the donation site on his thigh and then points out the artery in question to Garrus, who's making himself comfortable between his legs.

"You know the drill," he says. "This will sting."

Without further ado, Garrus bites him. Kaidan winces, but forces himself to relax, resting a hand on his shoulder.

The venom hits him a second later, sinking in like a vaccine, and Kaidan gives a contented sigh as his migraine starts to fade.

Garrus lets go to look up at him, sympathy in his gaze. "Thought I'd start on a higher dose because of the migraine."

"Good idea," Kaidan says, and Garrus nods and goes back to it.

It's a weird sensation. The pain doesn't all go right away, but he's feeling so peaceful, so relaxed, that it doesn't seem to matter. He closes his eyes, trailing his hand up Garrus' neck to his face, and Garrus purrs beneath him.

He'd lied a little. The suggestion of blood drinking between lovers and Ashley's fantasy had only planted the idea in his head; it was the _sounds_ Garrus makes when he's enjoying himself that had eroded his usually tight self control. The implication that he'd wanted Ashley had only added fuel to the fire, because yeah, he'd have liked to see them have sex. The implication that Garrus wants _him_ too is a surprise, but not an unwanted one.

In the quiet of the now empty geth base, every breath Kaidan takes is just audible below Garrus' pleased purring as he strokes his cheeks and mandibles. Ashley hadn't mentioned the strange dichotomy of the serenity the venom brings and the molten pleasure it turns every touch and sound into.

"Hello, _Staff_ Lieutenant," she says, a note of amusement in her voice, and Kaidan can't even find it in him to be embarrassed that he's hard. He's got a loud turian between his legs; why shouldn't he be? "How are we doing?"

"Good," he says, rougher than he'd expected. _Touch me,_ he wants to say, but she's _just_ used his rank; he doesn't want it to come off as an order. "Ash, if I lie down, can you keep my head elevated?"

"Yeah, c'mere," she says, and she shifts to sit behind him, propping his head in her lap. He expects her to leave the physical contact at that, but for a moment she keeps one hand by his head, rubbing feather-light circles over his temple ( _tease_ ), until she shifts his omni-tool screen in the air and brings up her own.

Kaidan stares. She looks strange upside down. "Really? You're checking your e-mail _now_?"

"I'm researching," she says, but doesn't elaborate on what exactly she's researching. "I'm gonna try something - let me know if this hurts."

"What?" he says.

A second later, her fingertips are massaging the sides of his neck, and Kaidan groans and reaches up to pat her shoulder in thanks. It's nothing he hasn't done to himself during migraines before, but turian venom in his system and someone else's touch make it good even beyond the easing of tension.

"Good groan?" she asks.

"Very good groan," he says, and Garrus growls in approval, shifting a hand to his other thigh. Kaidan moves his hand up to his crest, tangling his fingers between his horns, and Garrus hums.

"Pull his hair," suggests Ashley. "He likes that."

"It's horns, not hair," he says lazily, giving it a tug to make his point. Garrus makes a noise like the Mako before it dies (Kaidan's never going to hear the Mako the same way again), his tongue flicking out over his skin, and he stutters as he adds, "Don't be human-centric, Ash."

Her fingers still on his neck. "Aye aye, sir," she says, sounding abashed, and Kaidan instantly wants to kick himself.

"That wasn't an order," he says, as gently as possible.

"I know," she says. Garrus pulls away, frowning at her, and she reaches over Kaidan to push him back down. " _Hey_. As you were."

"Ma'am," Garrus says promptly, and then looks embarrassed.

Ashley laughs at him, and Kaidan's about to join her when Garrus grazes his teeth up his thigh to the wounds instead of just going back in, and he ends up moaning instead. It's a light touch, not even using the sharper edges of his teeth, but it's been a while since he's had someone paying him this kind of attention between his legs, and with sensation and pleasure heightened by the venom, it's like spreading a fire.

"Hey," adds Garrus, his hands tightening on his thighs, which along with the way he's dropping his voice, doesn't help. "Stay still. Don't arch. I don't want to hit something I shouldn't."

"You want me to stay still, then stop _teasing_ and drink up," Kaidan retorts.

" _Needy_ ," says Garrus.

As he lowers his mouth to his leg again and starts drinking, Ashley chuckles above him. It looks like the distraction's lifted her spirits a bit, because she smiles when she catches him looking up at her, and starts massaging again, her fingers inching further up his neck with every stroke. He closes his eyes in bliss, but soon enough she's poking delicately around his implant, and he opens his eyes. People tend to avoid the area, too scared of biotics to risk it. Chakwas is the last person who's touched him at the base of his skull, and though she was gentle it was _clinical_. Ashley's touching him with just as much intent to ease his pain, but a different energy to it.

" _Hel_ lo," he says stupidly, and she goes still again.

"I'm not disturbing it or anything, am I?"

"No, you're fine. Just - careful around it, okay? It can get hot when I'm..." He looks pointedly at his lap, hoping she gets the intended message and not _when I'm losing blood_. "I wouldn't want you to get burnt."

" _Oh_ ," she says in understanding. "Yeah, I was about to say it's hot."

"Probably the only thing that is," says Garrus, and Kaidan rolls his eyes at the reminder of turians' higher body temperature.

Ashley runs her fingers hard from just below the base of his implant up to his ears, and Kaidan doesn't know whether he wants to melt in her hands or explode under Garrus' mouth. It's a very close contest, even before taking into account those stupid, aphrodisiac sounds Garrus makes when he strokes a mandible or tightens his fingers in his crest.

"Ow," says Ashley, yanking her hands off of him and sucking on a finger.

Kaidan tries not to think about her lips around something else. "Did my implant burn you? Are you okay?"

"You're sparking," she says.

He takes a breath, and tries to withdraw the electric heat playing over his body, but his brain won't cooperate. The level of control it takes to clamp down on errant biotics takes a tension and concentration that he simply doesn't have right now, too languid and _close_ to bother.

"The recon scout was biotic too," says Garrus, peering up at him. "She was only starting to manifest it, so she wasn't as good at controlling it as you, but she started to lose it completely when she was going to come."

"Thank you for that explanation," Kaidan says, getting only a grin in response.

Ashley puts her fingers on his neck again, biting her lip for a moment before nodding. "Okay. I can take it. It's just - buzzy."

"Itchy," suggests Garrus.

"No, not itchy, just tingly," she says. "Weird."

Kaidan considers, then concentrates, and manages to mostly redirect his biotics to where he's touching them, in Ashley's lap and Garrus' crest. Ashley gasps, ragged and surprised, but Garrus just repeats, " _Itchy_ ," and Kaidan remembers abruptly that turians have metal in their skin.

"Biotics for Ash only," he says. "Got it."

"I'm not expecting you to control it," Garrus says smugly, before putting his mouth to his thigh again.

He's right, and Kaidan hates him a little for it, but at the same time he doesn't want this to end. Garrus strokes over his skin to his hip, agonizingly close to where he needs even _one_ of them, and as Kaidan struggles through the physical mnemonics of a slight biotic pulse at the back of his neck, he doesn't shut up. The biotics themselves, of course, are directed at Ashley, who's breathing hard above him as dark energy vibrates through her core. She's too distracted to keep up the massage but he doesn't even care. He just doesn't know what to watch: Garrus drinking his blood, or Ashley about to come.

"Kaidan," Ashley whimpers. "Garrus. Someone. _Please_ -"

Ecstasy crashes through him, magnified by the venom to be at once more violent and more smooth than any orgasm he's had before, and in the end, he doesn't have to decide who to look at, because it's so good he closes his eyes. His biotics flare and set Ashley off too, and from the way she grabs his shoulders she wasn't expecting it. The weight from his legs is suddenly gone as Garrus recoils entirely, probably avoiding the biotics as much as the risk of hurting him.

Something starts beeping while Kaidan's still coming down. It takes a moment before Garrus starts laughing, and another moment before Kaidan realizes that it's his omni-tool on Ashley's wrist, and yet another before she turns off the alarm.

"Good thing I'd stopped anyway," Garrus says, snickering as he lies down again to lick over the wounds.

"This is going to be so sticky," Kaidan says, relaxing under his tongue. "I do _not_ care."

Ashley gives him a languid smile, and reaches sideways into his medkit for a unit of medi-gel, which she passes to Garrus. As Garrus sits up and removes a glove to cut the packet open, he asks, "Is this a human thing, not taking your clothes off even when you know you're going to get off? Because the cross-species porn I've seen always had them stripping, but maybe that's for the turian audience -"

Both Kaidan and Ashley burst out laughing. Garrus looks somewhat affronted, but applies a little medi-gel and activates it.

"Oh my god," says Ashley. " _No_ , this isn't a _thing_. I wasn't expecting it the first time, and this time I didn't want to stop to get naked."

"Oh, good, one fewer weird thing about humans," says Garrus, visibly relieved. "Someone remind me to change into civvies next time, because I don't know about human armor, but turian armor isn't made to accomodate open plates."

"Open - what?" asks Ashley.

"He's hard, Ash," Kaidan says.

Ashley chuckles. " _Oh_."

"You need some help with that?" he adds.

Garrus shakes his head. "You first, you just lost a pint of blood. Where do you keep your energy bars?"

"Left arm," says Kaidan, too boneless and lazy to get it himself, and Ashley pops the compartment on his armor and unwraps the energy bar.

"Sit up," she says. "You're not losing a pint of blood only to choke."

Kaidan sits up obediently, but pulls both of them closer before he starts to eat. Garrus curls an arm around his waist, half-supporting him if he's honest; Ashley seems a little reluctant to touch now that Garrus isn't actively drinking his blood.

He's almost finished with his bar when Garrus says, "Crap."

"That's not what I like to hear after getting someone off," Ashley says.

"I just realized we don't have water," says Garrus. "Fluid replacement."

"My fault," Kaidan says with his mouth full. He's the medic; he should have thought about that instead of just opening his legs the second Garrus brought up the idea. "At least I've got food."

"Got enough of those?" Ashley asks. "I know the biotics burn through a lot..."

"There's more in my medkit."

Kaidan waves a hand. He's not worried about that, not now. He _is_ a little thirsty, but mostly he just wants _contact_. He leans into Garrus, pressing his nose into his neck, and grazes his teeth up the soft skin of his throat, then sucks just beneath his chin. Garrus makes a sound both surprised and either angry or turned on; from the way he doesn't fight it, he's guessing the latter.

"What are you _doing_?"

"I told you he's good at necking," Ashley says distantly.

Her gaze is heavy enough to feel, but when he glances over, her body language is equal parts arousal and defensiveness, and if there's one thing he remembers through the haze of venom and afterglow, it's this: The regs exist to protect _her_ ; trying to talk or seduce her into more than she's already given would be an abuse of his power. She doesn't deserve that.

"We're here if you want to join in," he says, leaving the metaphorical door open.

"Thank you, sir," she says, and from the _sir_ at the end, he's guessing that's at least partially gratitude for not pressuring her.

"Come on, Ash," says Garrus. "You were the one who started the cuddling last time."

"Because I was the one high as a kite on venom," she says.

"What's the big deal?" Garrus asks. "From the way Shepard acts I thought the Alliance wasn't too strict about this kind of thing."

"Not now," she says quietly.

"I'm not even Alliance," Garrus points out. "Can you really get in -"

" _Yes_ ," Ashley snaps, and Kaidan realizes that Garrus _doesn't know_. He'd done the math himself, after noticing the line in her file saying she came from a notable military family. The results of a quick codex search for military Williamses, her crap assignments despite her exemplary test scores, and the way she treated their alien squadmates as if to compensate had painted an ugly picture.

Battlefield instincts kick in sluggishly, treating this like she's lost shields: He has to cover her.

"Garrus, I'm surprised," he says, a verbal barrier. "Would've thought you'd be more concerned with dealing with _this_."

Just as deliberately as Garrus had touched him earlier, Kaidan strips off a greave and places his hand on his codpiece. If turian armor's anything like human armor, he probably can't feel it, but the intent is visible enough that whatever retort Garrus was starting dies in his throat.

"That is _definitely_ a concern," Garrus manages.

Kaidan runs his hands along his armor until he finds the seals, and then he starts popping them. Garrus almost throws away the pieces of his armor in his haste to undress, then pushes down his compression suit pants and underwear in one go.

"Huh," says Ashley.

Both he and Garrus turn to look at her at the same time, and find her staring into Garrus' lap with curiosity and possibly a hint of desire. He'd almost forgotten she was there.

He turns back to Garrus, without missing the fact that Garrus keeps his eyes on her as Kaidan reaches for him. If Garrus runs hot in civvies with another person between them, his naked cock is like a gun after too many shots, almost too hot to handle and just as hard, but biotics have given him a little experience with heat in his hands. He spits into his hand and wraps it around him, and Garrus gives a whole body shudder.

"He's hot," Kaidan reports to Ashley. "Uh, temperature-wise."

"No, you humans are just cold," says Garrus, and Ashley laughs.

"Whiny turian," she says, but her voice is throaty, and Kaidan realizes belatedly that she's found her own way to join in. Jesus, they're _all_ voyeurs here.

Garrus gives a different kind of whine as Kaidan feels out the ridges that run all the way up, noticing how he's wider than human men. He'd feel a little insecure if not for the weird curve in his cock that doesn't make sense to him - that he kind of wants to make sense of, some time when he's not half-dizzy from blood loss.

Oh. Right. That would be useful information. Some medic he is. "I'm a little dizzy," Kaidan warns him, and Garrus puts an arm around the back of his shoulders and a hand under his elbow. With someone to hold him upright, he feels secure enough to stroke him properly, a slow, gentle up and down that gets Garrus groaning deeper than when they're playing with his fringe, louder without biting down on someone.

"Garrus, touch him," says Ashley.

Kaidan barely gets the chance to yelp, "Talons?" before Garrus is cupping him with one hand over his drying underwear. His instincts make him thrust into his touch; his surprise makes him discharge biotics in his palm, and Garrus grunts in shock. "Sorry," Kaidan says quickly. "That was an accident - itchy?"

"No plating," Garrus pants. "No metal."

"Tingly?" Ashley suggests, and Garrus nods.

Having someone rubbing at his cock, however clumsily, however clothed, makes it difficult to focus on charging and maintaining a low level mass effect field around his hand. Well, it's either that, or it's the lightheadedness, because he starts to fall forwards before Garrus puts a hand on his chest.

"Are you okay?" Garrus asks, concerned. "Do you need to lie down?"

"Not until you finish," Kaidan says. He denied himself the gratification of release last time until Ashley was asleep in Garrus' arms and he was alone in the showers, but this time no one gets left behind.

"Don't push yourself," says Ashley. "Do I get a first aider veto? Because I'm using my veto."

"I'm close anyway," Garrus admits.

Kaidan smiles, and, ignoring Ashley's warning, pumps him faster; Garrus' rhythm stutters in response but speeds up to match, and soon Kaidan's sparking, white hot biotics playing unfocused over his body. If he'd thought the sensuality of only sound and suggestion and driving out the migraine was intense before, the venom makes direct stimulation almost unbearable, just on the precipice of too much.

This time the biotic flare when he comes is stronger, tossing up every piece of armor and clothing and his medkit on the floor, but he barely hears the clang as they come back down, too lost in bliss and the sound of Garrus snarling his delight ("spirits, Kaidan - fucking - _Ash_ -"). The crash is stronger too, leaving him more lightheaded than he really should be.

"Okay," he says. " _Definitely_ dizzy. Sorry -"

Kaidan passes out.

 

When he comes to, he's lying flat on the floor, his armor's back on, and Garrus is looking down at him, concerned.

"Oh, good, you've come around," he says. "We are _definitely_ not doing that again without access to more water and food."

Kaidan swallows. "How long was I out?"

"Fifteen minutes," replies Ashley, who's sitting on his other side. "Who _apologizes_ when they faint? Honestly, Canadians."

"I'm surprised that stereotype made it out to the colonies," Kaidan says.

"What's a Canadian?" Garrus asks, mystified. "Please, spare a thought for the turian in the room."

Ashley laughs, light and easy. It feels like he's back at the start of this misadventure in vampire fantasies, when the venom was just starting to lace through his system, but he knows that it's on its way out. He reaches out, and they both take one of his hands.

"Ash," he says. "Did you...?"

For a moment she simply stares at him, confused, before the meaning clicks into place. "Oh, yeah, I'm good," she says. "Don't worry about me, LT, I can take care of myself."

She and Garrus share a smirk over his head, and Kaidan wonders what he missed, then decides the mystery leaves more room for imagination.

"How's the migraine?" she adds.

Kaidan blinks, and realizes it's completely gone. "Like I never had it," he says. "Damn, Garrus, why isn't some turian pharmaceutical company marketing venom as a painkiller?"

"Oh, they've tried," Garrus says. "Problem is it has to match the recipient's blood type exactly - it's actually made with a little of the blood drained - and it doesn't really keep."

"Probably safer for all of us," says Ashley. "That stuff could get addictive."

"Mm." Carefully, Kaidan sits up. "Not a bad first assignment with me in command, was it?"

"Not bad at all," she says. "Remind me to write you a good performance review when we get back."

"It certainly ended in a much more fun way than when Shepard runs the show," Garrus drawls, and they all laugh.


End file.
